Studio Manager Bulletin

Learning Enough FileMaker to be Dangerous

I guess I am a risk taker or just an idealist. I want all my Studio Manager customers to learn enough FileMaker to be dangerous. I want you to kick the tires, try things, duplicate stuff, create scripts, add fields and create lots of new reports. I want and give you permission to delete, yes, delete, the pieces of Studio Manager that are in the way.

Before I continue, I want to be clear about one thing. I don't think everyone in your shop needs to be dangerously smart with FileMaker. I just want to make sure that you don't miss out on one of the biggest advantages of FileMaker. In a turbulent world, you need a responsive tool that will allow you to move quickly and get what you want. I don't mean to convert everyone in your shop to be FileMaker tinkerers. One person in your shop or work group who has acquired intermediate FileMaker skills is all you need to get a lot more value.

It is too bad that, for the most part, only my customers who have had previous experience with FileMaker are as dangerous as I would like all my customers to be. Studio Manager is designed to be your mission critical application. It has to be right for you. It is built in the most user-friendly and accessible database available. FileMaker has risen to the top of the database world because it allows users to get what they want and need.

That's why I based Studio Manager on FileMaker. That's why I chose FileMaker. It wasn't going to give me geek cred back in 1986 to use FileMaker. I was already an experienced computer professional at that time and FileMaker was not your database power tool. But it didn't have to be and I seemed to be one of the first computer professionals to realize that complicated power features in vast quantities do not translate into customer satisfaction.

My criteria for a software development tool are: (1) it allows me to rapidly develop useable business applications, (2) it is sturdy so that systems don't break easily and (3) I need to be able to figure out what is wrong and fix it within 5 minutes. I have had to stretch that to an hour with some of my more complex FileMaker features that weren't even possible back in the early days of FileMaker Plus, but FileMaker wins this competition hands down.

Have you been paying attention the last few years? There is a huge movement called user-generated content. Think of FileMaker Pro 8.5 as the best tool to develop user-generated database capabilities. User-generated customization is what I want to talk about in a series of blog posts I am writing.

I kicked off my efforts with an introductory post on FileMaker Fever. Please check it out if you would like to be a little more dangerous with Studio Manager or your home grown FIleMaker solution. Actually, I promise to guide you so that you stay out of trouble. Rule one on that is: you have nothing to worry about once you have a current backup (x2).

When I am actively developing in FileMaker, I just duplicate the file before I start so I have a revision to revert or refer back to if I need it. If you have your backups, you can try new things and experiment. No harm, no foul. Try it!

Technorati Tags: FileMaker 8, FileMaker 8.5

Studio Manager Users Should Stick with FileMaker 8 v1

If you are running Studio Manager 7x on FileMaker 8, we advise you to use FileMaker 8 version 1 until version 3 is made available. FileMaker Inc. issued FileMaker 8 version 2 to address some issues that were found in version 1. They addressed these successfully but introduced some architectural changes that created other new issues. The original issues in version 1 should not be a problem for Studio Manager users unless you are aggressively customizing the application in ways that version 1 had problems with.

If you aren't already aware of the now well-documented issues, take a look at today's post on my FileMaker Fever blog entitled: Documented Issues in FileMaker 8 v1 and v2.

Access Studio Manager from the road, from Starbucks and from Home

FileMaker 7 dramatically improves the speed of remote access. This means that if you are running Studio Manager 7 or above, you could be accessing your Studio Manager database from wherever you are. As long as you have a home computer or notebook running FileMaker, you can log-in and get really good performance even when you are away from your office.

I have a big Studio Manager client on the East coast that I support remotely. I am not limited in what I can do. I do major work for one or more hours cross-country without a problem. If I need to double-check something offline, my clients will send me a copy of their version of Studio Manager for testing purposes, but that's actually a fairly rare requirement. Usually I can safely work live.

I would love it if every one of my Studio Manager 7 or 7.5 customers set themselves up for remote access. That way when you need me, I'm able to log-in and discuss the issue and fix it for you right then and there. It's really convenient.

Also, when you have a question, I can look at your database live rather than struggle with you explaining exactly what's going on even though I can't see the screen.

If I can access remotely, you don't have to take the time to compress your file and send it to me for an overnight review or upgrade. The problem of making sure you don't change the database or need it while I have it and am working on it goes away. No need to wait for a weekend when work needs to be done. I can just log in and get it done for you painlessly.

See my post on FileMaker Fever for details on how this can be easily set-up.

If you are still running Studio Manager on FileMaker 5 or 6, this is one big reason you might want to seriously consider upgrading to FileMaker 8 and Studio Manager 7.5.

Using FileMaker 8 Clairvoyance and List Arrows

I'm playing around with my Studio Manager product to see where clairvoyance and the list control can be used to make data entry easier than ever in FileMaker 8. Here's my Vendor Entry screen with my basic address information showing. Notice that I've added a little list control arrow at the right end of Title, Company, City, State, Zip and Country. These arrows rock.

Now you have a choice when you enter a new address. You can pop-down a value list if you are selecting a common value Title or entering a person for an existing company. Or, you can just start typing and clairvoyance will kick in to help auto-complete whatever you type. This is extra-strength ease of use!

If you already have Studio Manager 7, you can very easily add these controls. In fact, you would be surprised how easy it is. How about just double-click the field in layout mode and click a couple check boxes. You will need to also create a new value list for City or Title but that's a snap too. Here's the Control Style dialog portion of the Field Control/Setup dialog:

By the way, I've written a companion post on FileMaker Fever with a couple other tidbits in case you are interested.

Technorati Tags: Clairvoyance, FileMaker 8, FileMaker8, List Controls, puppy